Spartacus' merry rabble swarms across country to face a Roman army that, seen from a distance, resembles either a group of ants moving in perfect formation or living chessboard squares marching in order — an unbeatable, fascist machine. It's a breathtaking moment, which forces you to realise that Kubrick (before CGI) had to command extras as rigidly as Crassus runs Rome.

Olivier is truly remarkable in his portayal of the hammy actor, anti-hero Archie.

Timeless classic. Superb performances and the infamous shower scene make this the perfect nightmare.

Delightful comedy romance with a clutch of note-perfect performances.

Truly classic film-making.

Superbly adapted with blistering performances from Taylor and Hepburn.

Little can come close to captivating the grandeur and epic quality of William Wyler's magnificent bum numb-er.

The quintessential '50s rom-com.

Powerhouse performance from Richard Burton but a little too old to play the angry young man stuff that is essential to this tale.

This is Hitchcock's longest film and also his most self-referential. Little jokes abound about art and artifice, role play and reality, duty and duplicity and each viewing reveals something new to enhance the pleasure of watching the Master of Suspense at his most mischievous and assured.

Brilliantly terrible or terribly terrible depending on your viewpoint.

Cleverly wrought and expertly played crime thriller.

Faultless, freewheeling-and very funny.

Although time doesn't flatter the film much, it remains engaging and insightful.

Key to its success - along with its vivid characters and brilliant performances - is the snappy pace throughout. Non-stop gags, invention, twists and comic incident flow, as Joe and Jerry - sexy Curtis and screamingly funny Lemmon - elude mob boss George Raft by wriggling into an all-girl jazz band, with Josephine and Daphne’s legendary drag act taking in amorous adventures, seductive deceptions and madcap pursuits.

There are some poignant moments, but Steven's decision to shoot a claustrophobic movie in CinemaScope and the stage-bound feel of the whole enterprise never bring the action to life.

A consummate display of populist weepie-making.

Stylish enough, but the plodding story inhibits the smooth sophistication of the film's stars.

Delightful, but bum-numbingly slow.

Dark but beautiful.

Epic, heartbreaking cowboy story.

Uncomfortable viewing which isn't afraid to engage with race-related violence.

Two of cinema's most iconic stars on top form make this worth a good look.

Expertly executed example of a golden time in British cinema - one to savour.

Gripping throughout with frame upon frame of standout images and superb performances from the two leads.

By deviating from Stoker's text, Hammer was clearly signalling a new direction in horror. It was garish, it was sexy and it was never afraid to be gory.

Marlene Dietrich tries not to give anything away as usual while Agatha Christie's whodunit plot whirs tidily about her expressionless beauty.

Astonishing cinematography and brilliantly played, this certainly one of the most influential crime movies in history.

Not as depressing as the subject matter might suggest, this tackles heavy themes of modern life.

As the anger simmers, Kubrick’s camera remains detached, patrolling the trenches, pacing the courtroom. Terse and remorseless it may be, but the final flourish is perhaps the most fitting gracenote in all of cinema.

Possibly Lean's most complicated movie, Kwai is a towering work.

Effective melodrama with some satisfying emotional confrontations, particularly from Lana Turner.

One of the most legendary tear-jerkers of the 20th century.

In its best scenes, it adds dynamism and British grit to a genre that had previously tried to get by on atmospherics and mood alone. It manages to be shocking without being especially frightening, and its virtues of performance and style remain striking.

It's not as poetic as My Darling Clementine or as historically accurate as Sturges' sequel-remake, Hour Of The Gun, but it is a wonderful evocation of the brassy Westerns of the 50s, when Burt and Kirk demonstrated more machismo than a whole posse of Arnies or Slys.

Sidney Lumet's dazzling debut, based on Reginald Rose's teleplay, delivers a masterclass in the pure dynamism of acting, as Henry Fonda's reasonable doubt gradually sways the 11 other jurors from their various prejudices.

Whilst paranoid in a very 1950's way and a little downbeat at times this is very enjoyable.

Hitchcock's coldest, hardest movie until its controversial ending.

Though glossy, Sirk's film is tightly structured, with a creative manipulation of light and reflection, and heavy with the symbolism of male destructiveness. Unflinching in its often ugly revelation of character and consequence, it's an intense and powerful film.

Entertaining Sunday afternoon stuff.

Despite half-a-dozen recent attempts to "correct" this biopic, Minnelli's agonised portrait of the life of Vincent Van Gogh remains the definitive movie word on the subject.

Who could ever buy Atticus Finch as the demonic Ahab driven by hellfire to hunt down that dreaded white whale?

Even though he was just staring out, Kubrick instantly mastered the crime genre. A stunning film.

Hitch's remake of his own film results in an equally compelling action thriller with sterling performances from Stewart and Day.

In 1956 audiences flocked to The Searchers precisely because it was a John Wayne western, and lapped up its mix of Injun-fightin' action, rough comic knockabout and intense, emotional storyline. Seen now, it is all that and much, much more.

A number of decent performances and a gritty realistic view of London makes this little sci-fi spin-off still worth a look.

A raw, blood-soaked glare into the seedy underworld of sport, with terrific performances by two of Hollywood's heavyweights.

The film's amazing strengths easily outweigh the odd outbreak of hammery.

Meticulously constructed, beautifully played and poignant.

A 50s horror classic that remains a gem of allegorical paranoia.

Romance novel in narrative this transcends its genre with visual depth and perceptive socio-cultural insights.

Still one of the most thrilling and thoroughly entertaining of all musicals.

More Damon Runyan than Irvine Welsh, but as entertaining as it is important.

The red-jacketed, Method-pouting James Dean steals every scene, but the ensemble playing is nothing short of exemplary.

A brilliant musical that still looks fresh today.

A lighter film for Hitchcock but with a wonderfully sewn narrative and some good performances.

Lesser Hitch, but still superb entertainment.

Ignored for a long time, this film is now impossible to ignore. Mitchum is magnetic.

With cracking music, a rollicking pace and dialogue that stands up to scrutiny, Lady And The Tramp really is among Walt's very best.

Enormously influential, it spawned Hollywood's interest in smaller scale, prosaic dramas, few of which failed to match its resonance.

Steinbeck himself praised it for reaching the parts his book couldn't. Need a better endorsement?

Originating the genre of 'dedicated teacher reaches troubled kids in a ghetto school', this is still affecting although heavy-handed.

Mason's urbane genius and Douglas' dimpled two-fistedness (and stripy sailor shirt) beef up a floppy script.

1954 musical that is woefully miscast in places and extremely dubious in its portrayal of African-Americans but does boast an on-form Dorothy Dandridge.

Hollywood over-indulgence at its best.

Great songs, gentle humour and a dose of syrup which is not to everyone's tastes, but worth buying to keep that Christmas spirit going until next year.

Entertaining satire from a talented cast.

Overdone and not particularly tasteful musical stuff and nonsense.

Flawless, essential viewing that would earn more than its five stars if only Empire would allow it.

Great songs, great set pieces and solid performances in this colourful and infectiously enjoyable musical.

We must salute screenwriter Budd Schulberg (his speech for priest Karl Malden in the loading bay is still stirring). Add the acting/writing heroics a restrained score by Leonard Bernstein and a striking, charcoal look by cinematographer Boris Kaufman, and you have an elegiac portrait of labour relations that feels like a kick in the slats.

Still gripping after all this time.

A magnificent comic performance and a film of genial hilarity.

Despite Hitchcock's own reservations this is definitely worth a look. Interesting to his aficionados and darkly funny and depressing in turns.

A classic horror that warms the heart and wets the pants.

It’s a mix of impressive on-location cycle spills (the roaring-down-the-empty-road opening is still a grabber) and embarrassingly hokey rumbles on obvious poverty row sound-stages. Lee Marvin is superbly grungy as a supporting troublemaker, and his character doesn’t sell out by reforming for the love of a weedy but decent woman.

Day is on top form as the boastful sharpshooter, but she's ably matched by her supporting cast and the music.

The spectacular last-reel recreation of the bombing makes this, Michael Bay notwithstanding, the Pearl Harbor film to beat, but the unquestioned highlight is the famous on‑the‑beach adultery scene between virile sergeant Lancaster and an unusually unladylike Kerr, with the waves crashing around them to symbolise their unrestrained passions.

Witty, warm and beautifully filmed by Franz Planer and Henri Alekan, it remains an unabashed romantic delight, with Hepburn particularly luminescent. [Review of re-release]

A perfect backstage musical.

Interesting depiction with a pretty decent performance from Holden and supported by a credible cast.

Entertaining in places, if only for the fact that unlike most 50s si-fi films, the aliens are treated with some sympathy.

Tries just a tad too hard to be a classic, with Ladd's Roy Rogers woodenness not quite getting the depths of author Jack Schaefer's fallen hero, but the support - Jean Arthur as the yearning farmer's wife, Ben Johnson as the conscience-struck bully - are excellent, and some scenes lodge forever in your memory.

It'll never be remembered as a Hitchcock classic by any stretch, but that is far from saying it's the mess that some regard it as. It's entertaining, and the visuals speak volumes more than the over-cooked dialogue. Worth a look.

Definitely a Disney classic but misses out much of the darker side of J.M.Barrie's fantasy tale.

Douglas' teeth-clenched, dimple-thrusting megalomaniac is among his best work, while the gossipy screenplay (another Oscar winner) is served wonderfully by Minnelli's lush melodramatics.

Elements of self parody from the master of slapstick leave you yearning for the early work that made his name. But it's worth a watch to see Chaplin and Keaton in one of few on-screen appearances together.

Ideal Sunday afternoon fare.

Not quite as fully realised as the classic Adam's Rib, but generally good.

This is a must-see film for its unashamed romanticism, its breathtaking visual delirium, the excellent performance of Cusack as the only rational person in the county and the sheer spirit with which the fundamental daftness of the plot is served up.

Incredible set pieces and songs that have entered the culture forever, this is also extremely well-paced and beautifully played. Truly one of the greatest musicals ever made.

A perfect ensemble of cast, photography and screenplay are all subtly handled through Huston's direction, bringing out Bogart and Hepburn's performances beautifully.

Kurosawa is always worth a look but this is a particular classic that has influenced so much to come, it's almost essential.

Enough large-scale spectacle scenes to outweigh the inevitable religiose sludge that creeps in between them.

The plotting - Kelly's struggling painter falls for Leslie Caron's French waif, engaged to nice but dull Georges Guétary - lacks the pace, exuberance and wit of, say, Singin' In The Rain, but compensates with fantastic Technicolor visuals..., George Gershwin's sublime music (pick of the tunes: I've Got Rhythm, S'Wonderful and Our Love Is Here To Stay), sublime art direction from the great Cedric Gibbons and astounding choreography and footwork from Kelly.

Alec Guinness shines in this hilarious British comedy.

The intricate work of a craftsman, and a beautiful appearance by the beguiling Simone Sigornet.

This is a superbly crafted, landmark film which invested a much-derided and frequently ludicrous genre with a welcome degree of dignity and respectability.